A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices used to establish proper orientation of medical instruments during medical procedures. The present invention also relates to methods for producing devices used for orienting instruments during medical procedures.
B. Description of the Prior Art
There are many medical procedures which are technically demanding on the physician. More particularly, certain medical procedures require, for example, the cutting, drilling, reaming, or shaping of tissue, specifically, bone. When a practitioner performs these tasks, a high degree of accuracy in establishing the proper orientation of medical instruments is required. In certain orthopedic and neurosurgical procedures these tasks can be extremely difficult because the practitioner must rely on locating a portion of the tissue, referred to as a landmark, and manually orient an instrument, appliance and/or prosthesis relative to that landmark.
While some instrumentation is available for fixing an apparatus to the tissue to aid the practitioner in orienting the instrument, appliance and/or prosthesis relative to the landmark, such existing devices must be manually adjusted via, for example, screws to properly orient the instrument, appliance or prosthesis before the medical task is performed. This manual adjustment may require the concurrent use of scanning X-ray equipment.
The inconvenience of requiring the practitioner, during a medical procedure, to manually adjust such a device, while monitoring other equipment, to properly orient the instrument, appliance or prosthesis is a disadvantage of the existing devices. Disadvantageously, such adjustment requires the additional time of the practitioner, of the operating facility in which the medical procedure is being performed and of the other personnel required to be present during the procedure to assist the practitioner, as well as a resulting additional expense to the patient. Most importantly, this disadvantage creates an added risk to the patient's life due to the additional time required to perform the procedure.
Another disadvantage is the great potential for inaccurate application of the instrument, appliance and/or prosthesis due to the adjustability of the existing devices. For example, using such a device, the practitioner may be required to make several failed attempts to properly orient an appliance or prosthesis before achieving the proper orientation for the appliance or prosthesis. Additionally, due to the adjustability of the conventional devices, there is a high probability that the practitioner may never achieve an accurate orientation of the appliance or prosthesis.
Still another disadvantage of the conventional devices is the additional cost in having the scanner X-ray equipment and a qualified operator available during the procedure.